Hey Everyone, welcome back to Story Time Monday. Over the years I have managed to collect a couple of kids panels with the alphabet on them.  I don’t usually buy panels but these two caught my attention as they were quite cute and I thought they would make a nice quick quilt for a gift one day.

If you know me though I don’t usually do anything simple and quick.  These 2 panels are no exception to this.

Of course I bought 2 of each panel and so that meant 4 quilts. Not all made at once, though! I thought to myself I just don’t want to put a border around this panel as that is too simple and so I set about cutting up the panels into squares for each letter – the panels did lend themselves very well for this. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of the panels before they were cut up.

First Panel

The first panel had all the letters outlined with great big crayons and everything was brightly coloured.  In between the letter blocks I added plain blocks in bright colours.

The border is made with strips to create 2 coloured squares.

The quilting on the first one I used different motifs in the plain blocks.

A different motif quilted in each block.

The second one I quilted 8 point stars in all of the plain blocks and the border.  The 8 point stars are really cool and I use them a lot in my kids quilts.

Eight point stars – a continuous line pattern.

Each quilt has a slightly different border just to mix things up a bit.  One has large squares and the other has small squares.

Small square border.

Second Panel

The second panel was a bit trickier to design something with as the alphabet blocks were on an angle. I put my thinking cap on and came up with a great design to suit the angled blocks. The colours in this panel were a bit different and seemed rather muted but still bold. It took me a bit of time to gather just the right shades to go with the panel and eventually I had enough to build the quilt x 2.

A mix of different shades with a muted tone.

When we went to Adelaide one weekend I took the panel with me so I could take it to the quilt shop and match fabrics to go with it.

One afternoon Michael and I decided to walk from the hotel in Glenelg down to Brighton where the quilt shop is along the beach. [Editor’s Note: If ever there was a more fabulous place for a quilt shop, well, I’ve never seen it!] A gorgeous walk, too, I might add.

Half way there I realised that I left the panel back in the hotel room – oops.  We still went to the quilt shop and, of course, the coffee shop beside it which made the best flat whites in Adelaide.  Have no idea what a flat white is? Well tune in this Saturday to find out at Coffee Talk Saturday.

The jetty in Brighton – doesn’t it look just wonderful.

Once I had the quilt top put together I decided that the plane squares just didn’t do it for me and so I traced the shape of them on a piece of paper and then shrunk down the shape to appliqué in the middle of the block. I think it has quite a stunning effect.

Appliquéd centre in black.

The quilting on this one I just echoed the shapes and outlined the blocks using a number of different variegated colour threads.

So there you have it – 4 panels and 4 cool quilts.

Happy Quilting!